Canal drowning victom ID'd as Oroville boy

GRIDLEY &GT;&GT; The Butte County Coroner's Office identified the 12-year-old drowning victim in Tuesday's irrigation canal accident as Nathanael Long of Oroville.

Better known as Nate to family and friends, the boy was swimming with a friend Tuesday afternoon in a canal near Archer and Humble avenues in southeast Gridley when he was caught in the current of an irrigation valve and could not escape. It took firefighters nearly 30 minutes to pull his body from the valve, and despite life-support measures, he was pronounced dead at Orchard Hospital.

Officials said the tragedy highlights the dangers of swimming in canals, a popular pastime in this agricultural region. Such activities are not only illegal but put swimmers at risk from visible and unseen dangers.

As Chico resident Candy Roles understands from her 13-year-old son, who was swimming with Nate at the time of the accident, that children have swum in that canal for years. When Nate jumped in, his legs were sucked quickly into the siphon and though his head was still above water, the clog in the pipe caused the canal level to rise above his face.

Screaming for help, her son tried his best to save his friend as neighbors came running.

"He was pulling and pulling and he just couldn't get him out. I know there was a lot of people trying to pull," Roles said. "There was a lot of big men out there — nobody could do it."

Her son, who she declined to identify, is traumatized by the experience and death of his friend, and swore Tuesday he will never get in a canal again, she said.

"They were hot, they just didn't see any harm in it and it just happened," she said.

Roles hopes this tragic death will serve as a lesson for other parents and children.

"In Gridley there is a canal on every back road, every street almost," she said. "Even though people have been swimming there for years and years, it still doesn't make it safe."

Roles has tried to tell her son not to swim in the ditches, and encourages all parents to not let their children go unsupervised.

"It only takes a second to lose your child," she said. "You can educate them and educate them, but they are kids and they are not going to listen."